Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The French

The French Open (one of the four largest tennis tournaments of the year) started on Sunday. Chris and I considered vacationing in Paris this summer so that we could attend the tournament but quickly reconsidered when we 1) looked at the price of plane tickets to France and 2) looked at the the price of the tickets to the tournament (2 tickets to the men's final cost about as much as one plane ticket to France).

Chris and I are wearing our Rafa Nadal t shirts (they are actually both mine) to cheer him from afar.Rafael Nadal is pretty much considered the greatest clay court player ever, and given that the French is played on clay courts it has been kind of a given for the last several years that he would win the tournament. He has won five out of six years that he has competed.However, this year a new favorite has emerged: Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

After switching to a gluten-free diet, Djokovic has become unstoppable and is undefeated since last November. Nadal and Djokovic have met in the finals of four separate tournaments this year and Djokovic has won all of them. Two of these victories came on the clay surface-prior to these matches Djokovic had never defeated Nadal on clay.